Missing boy found murdered in Dubai

An eight year old Sharjah based Jordanian boy Obaida Ebrahim was found killed after an attempted sexual assault.

Sharjah, Dubai: Obaida Ebrahim, an eight-year old Jordanian boy who was reported missing in Sharjah was found dead after being strangled and dumped in Dubai, Narada News has learned from reliable sources. Jordanian Ebrahim Sedqi, father of Obaida runs a vehicle workshop on the ground floor of their building in Sharjah’s industrial area.

The mother thought that the boy, Obaida, was at his father’s workshop on the ground floor as he always used to stay there after school. Last Friday also Obaida’s mother thought that the boy was with his father in the workshop. The family reported that the boy was last see playing outside the building on Friday evening, the day when he was found missing. His father closed the workshop and returned back home. Obaida was reported missing from outside his father’s garage in Sharjah’s Industrial area on Friday.

The family went into a frantic search in the neighbourhood and made desperate phone calls to friends and relatives.

Sedqi was called to a police station on Sunday morning in Dubai, and was asked to verify an orange shoe; he was asked if it belonged to his son. The police announced that the boy was abducted and killed by a 48-year-old man identified as the father’s acquaintance later that evening. The body was buried following funeral prayers.

The police also arrested a man suspected of committing the crime. Nidal Eissa Abdullah Abu Ali, a 48-year-old Jordanian, who is a friend of the boy’s father is identified as the suspect. The body of Obaida was found near a football field in Al Warqa area near the Academic City road on Sunday. Obaida’s mother seeks death for son’s killer.

Hundreds of friends and relatives gathered at Al Sahaba mosque in Sharjah for Obaida’s funeral to bid farewell to Obaida. The community is in shock.

“We don’t know [the suspect]. Only three weeks earlier, he had come as a customer to my husband’s workshop to get his car repaired. I did not feel comfortable about this man from the beginning and when my son disappeared, I felt he was the one behind his disappearance,” the boy’s distraught mother told Gulf News.

The forensic report reveals that the suspect attempted to sexually assault the boy and strangled him. There were also marks on his body that showed that he tried to resist his attacker.

Maj Gen Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Dubai Police Chief, said that the boy’s body was found in Al Warqa area and signs that the suspect attempted to sexually assault the boy and strangled him.

Abu Ali was the last person the boy was seen with and the Dubai Police suspected him within few hours the boy was reported missing . He also changed his residence since the boy’s disappearance. Following procedures, the man was arrested, and Dubai Police found out he had crime reports involved in the early records of Dubai Police.

Maj Gen Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Assistant to the Dubai Police Chief for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said that Abu Ali confessed to his crime during questioning.

The man said he lured the boy at 7pm on Friday in front of his father’s garage by promising him to buy a small scooter.He then took the boy to Al Mamzar area in a car he took from his building’s watchman, parked it and consumed alcohol.

He then allegedly under the influence of alcohol asked the boy to take off his clothes and abused him. The boy screamed and told him he will tell his father about this.

“He tried to keep him quiet by strangling him with both his hand, then he used a Ghutra [part of an Arab headdress] to strangle him until he died,” Maj Gen Al Mansouri said in a report to GN.

The suspect drank alcohol till 5am on Saturday, then went home. The boy was dead and he left the boy in the backseat of the car till Saturday morning.

Two hours later, around 7am, he took the car to Academic City road and then dumped the body near a foot field, and threw away the other items used in his crime in different areas around Dubai.

Sharjah Police reported to Gulf News that the family first searched for the boy in the area before filing a missing complaint.